Mount Wellington (officially kunanyi / Mount Wellington ()
[) is a mountain in the southeast of ]Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, Australia. It is the summit of the Wellington Range and is within Wellington Park reserve. Hobart, Tasmania's capital city
A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...
, is located at the foot of the mountain.
The mountain rises to above sea level[ and is frequently covered by snow, sometimes even in summer, and the lower slopes are thickly forested, but crisscrossed by many walking tracks and a few fire trails. There is also a sealed narrow road to the summit, about from Hobart central business district. An enclosed lookout near the summit has views of the city below and to the east, the Derwent estuary, and also glimpses of the ]World Heritage Area
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
nearly west. From Hobart, the most distinctive feature of Mount Wellington is the cliff of dolerite
Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro,
is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...
columns known as the Organ Pipes.
Geology
The low-lying areas and foothills of Mount Wellington were formed by slow geological upsurge when the whole Hobart area was a low-lying cold shallow seabed. The upper reaches of the mountain were formed more violently, as a Sill with a tabular mass of igneous rock
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma o ...
that has been intruded laterally between layers of older rock pushing upwards by upsurges of molten rock as the Australian continental shelf tore away from Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
, and separated from Gondwana over 40 million years ago. A small volcanic vent was active about 300m south of the Pinnacle during Tertiary times, between 50 and 10 million years ago.
Indigenous history
The aboriginal nations people of the area referred to Mount Wellington as ''kunanyi'' (or ''ungyhaletta''), ''poorawetter'' (or ''pooranetere'', also ''pooranetteri'').
The indigenous people of Tasmania referred to it as ''kunanyi''. The Palawa, the surviving descendants of the original indigenous Tasmanians, tend to prefer the latter name. In 2013, the Tasmanian government announced a dual naming policy and "kunanyi / Mount Wellington" was named as one of the inaugural dual named geographic features.
European history
The first recorded European in the area Abel Tasman
Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New ...
probably did not see the mountain in 1642, as his ship was quite a distance out to sea as he sailed up the South East coast of the island – coming closer in near present-day North and Marion Bays.
No other Europeans visited Tasmania until the late eighteenth century, when several visited southern Tasmania (then referred to as Van Diemens Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...
) including Frenchman Marion du Fresne (1772), Englishmen Tobias Furneaux
Captain Tobias Furneaux (21 August 173518 September 1781) was an English navigator and Royal Navy officer, who accompanied James Cook on his second voyage of exploration. He was one of the first men to circumnavigate the world in both directions ...
(1773), James Cook (1777) and William Bligh
Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command; after being set adrift i ...
(1788 and 1792), and Frenchman Bruni d'Entrecasteaux
Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, chevalier d'Entrecasteaux () (8 November 1737 – 21 July 1793) was a French naval officer, explorer and colonial governor. He is perhaps best known for his exploration of the Australian coast in 1792, while ...
(1792–93). In 1793 Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore ...
John Hayes arrived at the Derwent River, naming the mountain Skiddaw, after the mountain in the Lake District, although this name never gained popularity.
In 1798 Matthew Flinders and George Bass
George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.
Early years
Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George ...
circumnavigated the island. Whilst they were resting in the area Flinders named the river the Derwent River (the name John Hayes had given only to the upper part of the river), Flinders referred to the mountain as 'Table Mountain' (the name given to it by Bond and Bligh – young Matthew Flinders was with them in 1791) for its similarity in appearance to Table Mountain
Table Mountain ( naq, Huriǂoaxa, lit= sea-emerging; af, Tafelberg) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the ...
in South Africa. Bruni d'Entrecasteaux's men were the first European to sail up the river and chart it. Later Nicholas Baudin led another French expedition in 1802, and whilst sheltering in the Derwent River (which they referred to as 'River du Nord' – the name d'Entrecasteaux had given to it) Baudin also referred to the mountain as 'Montagne du Plateau' (also named by d'Entrecasteaux). However, the British first settled in the Hobart area in 1804, resulting in Flinders' name of 'Table Mountain' becoming more popular. Table Mountain remained its common name until in 1832 it was decided to rename the mountain in honour of the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...
who, with Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt (; 21 December 1742 – 12 September 1819), ''Graf'' (count), later elevated to ''Fürst'' (sovereign prince) von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian '' Generalfeldmarschall'' (field marshal). He earne ...
finally defeated Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
at the Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...
in present-day Belgium on 18 June 1815.
In February 1836, Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
visited Hobart Town and climbed Mount Wellington. In his book ''The Voyage of the Beagle
''The Voyage of the Beagle'' is the title most commonly given to the book written by Charles Darwin and published in 1839 as his ''Journal and Remarks'', bringing him considerable fame and respect. This was the third volume of ''The Narrative ...
'', Darwin described the mountain thus:
''"... In many parts the Eucalypti grew to a great size, and composed a noble forest. In some of the dampest ravines, tree-ferns flourished in an extraordinary manner; I saw one which must have been at least twenty feet high to the base of the fronds, and was in girth exactly six feet. The fronds forming the most elegant parasols, produced a gloomy shade, like that of the first hour of the night. The summit of the mountain is broad and flat, and is composed of huge angular masses of naked greenstone. Its elevation is above the level of the sea. The day was splendidly clear, and we enjoyed a most extensive view; to the north, the country appeared a mass of wooded mountains, of about the same height with that on which we were standing, and with an equally tame outline: to the south the broken land and water, forming many intricate bays, was mapped with clearness before us. ..."''
The first weather station was set up on Mount Wellington in 1895 by Clement Lindley Wragge
Clement Lindley Wragge (18 September 185210 December 1922) was a meteorologist born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England, but moved to Oakamoor, Staffordshire as a child. He set up the Wragge Museum in Stafford following a trip around the wor ...
.
Mount Wellington has played host to some notorious characters over time, especially the bushranger 'Rocky' Whelan, who murdered several travelers in the middle of the 19th century. The cave where he lived is known appropriately as 'Rocky Whelan's Cave', and is an easy walk from the Springs.
Development
Throughout the 19th and into the 20th centuries, the mountain was a popular day-resort for residents of Hobart. To that end, many excursion huts were built over the lower slopes of the mountain. However, none of these early huts survive as they were all destroyed during the disastrous bushfires of 1967, though modern huts are open to the public at the Springs, the Pinnacle, the Chalet – a picnic spot about halfway between the Springs and the Pinnacle – and elsewhere. Sadly, many of the more remote huts have suffered from vandalism, and some are virtually derelict.
The road to the summit was constructed in the early 1930s as a relief scheme for the unemployed, an idea initiated by Albert Ogilvie, the premier of Tasmania of the day. While the road is officially known as the Pinnacle Drive, it was, for some time, also widely known among residents of Hobart as 'Ogilvie's Scar' because at the time it was constructed 'the Mountain' was heavily logged and almost bare, and the road was an all-too-obvious scar across the already denuded mountain. Today the trees have grown again, but the 'scar' most people see today is not actually the road but a line of large rocks with no trees 50–100 m above the road, provided as an easement for power lines. The road itself was opened on 23 January 1937, after two years of work, by Governor Sir Ernest Clark.
The road carries tourist traffic during the day, and sections may be closed at any time of the year due to snowfalls or icy conditions. Halfway up this road (at 720 metres) is a picnic area called "The Springs", near the site of a chalet/health spa that was destroyed by bushfire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...
in 1967.
Broadcast Tower
Mount Wellington was selected by many broadcasters as the site of radio and television transmitters as it provides line-of-sight transmission to a large area of Hobart and surrounding districts.
A 60m steel lattice tower was constructed in 1960, surpassing the Taroona Shot Tower as the tallest structure in Tasmania. The first television stations to transmit from the mountain were TVT-6
TVT is Tasmania's first television station, delivering its first official broadcast on 23 May 1960. The callsign stands for "TeleVision Tasmania". Unlike the commercial stations in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, and later Perth, TVT hel ...
(now WIN Television
WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single television station covering the Wollongong region. The WIN Netw ...
) and ABT-2 (the ABC) in 1960. Two main transmission towers located at its pinnacle; the concrete and steel BAI Communications tower (sometimes referred to as the NTA tower) and the other owned by WIN Television, of steel construction. The NTA tower broadcasts all of Hobart's high-power FM radio stations, plus the digital TV services for ABC and SBS. It also has a small accommodation area at its base, with a kitchen and workshop area. The WIN tower broadcasts the digital TV services for Southern Cross, WIN Television, and Tasmanian Digital Television. The site also contains a small kitchen area and contains some data links from local Hobart businesses. An amateur radio repeater is also installed on the mountain.
Erected in 1995, the current broadcast tower stands 130m tall. The site is considered one of the most inhospitable broadcasting sites in Australia with large incidence of strong winds which generally derive from the roaring forties that sweep the Southern Ocean from Africa.
Cable car proposals
:''See Mount Wellington cable car proposals''
An aerial cableway (cable car) has been proposed for the mountain on four occasions.
Climate
The summit of the mountain has a tundra climate
The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...
(Koppen ''ET''; Trewartha ''Fi'') according to the standard Köppen–Geiger and Trewartha climate classification systems, as a maritime polar climate according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Au ...
classification system. Using Otto Nordenskjöld
Nils Otto Gustaf Nordenskjöld (6 December 1869 – 2 June 1928) was a Finnish and Swedish geologist, geographer, and polar explorer.
Early life
Nordenskjöld was born in Hässleby in Småland in eastern Sweden, in a Finland Swedish family th ...
's alternative polar isotherm, it could be considered to have a subpolar oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...
(Köppen ''Cfc'') or a maritime sub(ant)arctic climate (Trewartha ''Eo''), though extreme winds—having been recorded at sustained speeds of over , with rare gusts of up to —prevent tree cover.
Its record low temperature is recorded on 3 September 1993, extreme for Australia and Tasmania though not especially so, lying outside the top 10 readings and top 7 locations for the state with its exposed, maritime aspect; its average yearly record low of around places it within USDA hardiness zone
A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...
9a and Australian National Botanic Gardens hardiness zone 2. It is one of a handful of Australian locations to have never recorded a temperature above , its highest temperature ever being most recently recorded on 31 January 2020, automatically putting it within American Horticultural Society heat zone 1; the average yearly record high is around .
The mountain significantly influences Hobart's weather, and intending visitors to the summit are advised to dress warmly against the often icy winds. In the winter it frequently snows and the mountain is often snowcapped. Lighter snowfalls in spring, summer and autumn are also common. A day on the summit can consist of clear sunny skies, then rain, snow, icy winds and clear again. Only in the months of January and February is it expected that fewer than 3 days will record a frost, and its summit is one of the only locations in Australia to routinely experience sub-freezing daily maxima, with more than 1 in 10 days in both July and August expected to be ice days, and experiencing the coldest daily highs in Tasmanian history at on 5 September 1995 and 11 August 2005.
See also
* List of highest mountains of Tasmania
Notes
References
Further reading
* 208 Network. (1994) ''Mt. Wellington – Mountain Park resource management plan and master plan for the Corporation of the City of Hobart : final draft for public comment'' : Hobart : 208 Network. "The 208 Network is John Hepper, Jerry de Gryse, with assistance from Chris Sharples, Fred and Diana Duncan, Robert Taylor, Hilary du Cros
Hillary du Cros is an Australian archaeologist and cultural tourism teacher in Hong Kong and Macau. She is currently Associate Professor, Hong Kong Institute of Education, teaching in the area of Cultural Tourism in the Department of Cultura ...
, Lindy Scripps, Greg Hodge".
* Curtis, Winifred M. (Winifred Mary) (n.d.) ''Forests and flowers of Mount Wellington, Tasmania '' illustrated by D. Colbron Pearse. obart Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
* de Quincey, Elizabeth and Cannon, John (2005) ''The Companion to Tasmanian History
''The Companion to Tasmanian History'' was a book produced in 2005 by the Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies at the University of Tasmania, in conjunction with the Tasmanian Government celebrations of the Bicentenary of Tasmania.
The proje ...
'' p. 245 – entry "Mount Wellington"
*
* Barnes, Angus (1992), 'Mount Wellington and the sense of place', Honours thesis, University of Tasmania. https://eprints.utas.edu.au/31711/
External links
Wellington Park official website
{{Authority control
Wellington, Mount
Wellington, Mount
Mount Wellington
Mount Wellington
Mount Wellington
Jurassic Oceania